


Something New

by haoships



Series: Love and Letter [5]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:54:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29126820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haoships/pseuds/haoships
Summary: Mingyu realizes things..
Relationships: Kim Mingyu/Xu Ming Hao | The8
Series: Love and Letter [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1859167
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	Something New

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I'm sorry I haven't updated any of my incomplete series work yet. I have been pretty busy adulting (can i just go back to school please?) and didn't really have much time on my hands. BUT I'm currently, slowly working on the updates! Please bear with me a little bit more 🙏 Thank you for your patience🥰
> 
> I am only posting this as I have already have this in my drafts for over five months now and I could use some more free space on my laptop. Sorry if it's messy but then again, most of my works are 😫
> 
> Stay safe everyone! Thanks for reading!
> 
> unbetaed✔️  
> english is not my first language✔️  
> kudos and comments are 🥰

Mingyu looks up from his desk when he sees him walk past. As usual, head bent, his arms hugging his laptop bag and folders, his posture is so bad that he looks tiny despite being 178cm tall. Hell, even Jihoon looks so much taller than him when he's being like this.

He watches as he nods his head in greeting to those who greets him on his way to his office.

"Psst! Gyu?" Mingyu turns his head to the left and sees Seokmin, the Accounting manager, giving him the look.

Mingyu could only sigh.

"We talked about this. Everybody agreed that only you can break it to him. You're the executive assistant after all, it’s better if he hears it from you than from someone else." Seokmin says in his most convincing voice.

He's right. The team talked about it and have voted for Mingyu to be the one to break the news to him first before the others jump in.

"I know. Just let the man get settled a little. He just arrived anyway."

Mingyu turns his head now to his boss' office. He watches as his boss take off his coat and hang it on the rack with a heavy sigh, shoulders slumped.He just stood there, with his head still hanging low, hands still not letting go of the coat and if he could just see him better, he'd know that his boss' grip on his coat is tight, hands paling and a little bit shaky.

Mingyu remembers his first day on the job like it was only yesterday.

_He had just graduated from college. The only work experience he has was as a barista for two years during his second and third year, and some programming tutorials he did for some of his classmates, or anybody who would offer to pay a reasonable amount for a couple of hours, it was a good application for his learnings too anyway._

_He arrived at the office with fifteen minutes to spare. He sits at his designated cubicle where he finds a welcome note with a drawing of a frog stuck on his computer monitor._

Hi Mingyu, 

Welcome to the team!🐸

-Minghao

_..it reads._

_He smiles at the thoughtfulness and just sits there admiring his employee ID._ Let's do well today Mingyu _he tells himself._

_He was going over his notes of his tasks and responsibilities when he hears glass breaking. He hurries to the source of the noise which turns out to be the pantry and stops when he sees a guy on his knees trying to clean the mess up. He hears the guy let out a little yelp, quickly pulling his hand away from the glass, bringing his bloodied finger to his lips to suck on it._

_"Are you okay?" Mingyu asks, feeling bad when the guy jumps a little at the sudden offer for help._ He must have not notice me come in.

_Mingyu walks over to him and offers his hand to help him up._

_The guy spares him a quick glance before looking at his offered hand, seemingly contemplating if he should take it. Mingyu didn't wait for long. He slowly and carefully wraps his big hand on the guy's delicate wrist and gently pulls him up on his feet._

_This guy cannot be older than him. His hair is jet black and is long enough to cover his eyes. He's wearing this big wire-rimmed, semi-round eyeglasses that takes up almost half of his skinny face. He has this big ecru cardigan that is about three sizes too big on him over a plain v-neck white shirt and black fitted jeans and white high-cut Converse._

_"I.. I.. I need to clean this up.." the guy tells him in a soft voice._

_"It's okay. I'll help you clean it up. We should take care of that cut first. Is there a first aid kit here somewhere?" Mingyu asks, pulling the other towards the sink so they can wash it clean._

_"Hao?"_

_Mingyu turns to where the voice came from and sees Jeonghan, the guy who got him the job walking towards them, a worried look on his face._

_"What happened here?" He asks again, this time, addressing the question to Mingyu._

_"I heard glass shatter and when I came here, his finger's bleeding."_

_"Can you grab the first aid kit in that cupboard please?" the older says pointing at a small cupboard next to the microwave while he pulls the guy to the nearest chair._

_Mingyu grabs the kit and hands it over to him._

_"Thanks. Can you also call the janitor to clean that up? I saw one on the way here." he instructs as he opens the kit looking for probably the antibiotic._

_Mingyu nods his head and was out of there in an instant. He found the janitor just a few steps away from the pantry and brings him in._

_"Is the cut deep? Anything I can help with?" Mingyu asks when he came back._

_Jeonghan just smiles at him as he put the guy's hand down, a yellow checked bandaid now adorning his index finger._

_"Nah. It's not. But I'm glad you're here. Mingyu, this is our boss, Minghao."_

_One look at Xu Minghao and one would never know he is a big guy, both literally and figuratively. The man is 5ft 10inches tall (okay, not anywhere near MIngyu's 6'2" but still taller than the average) but walks with no confidence, always looking at the ground, slouched, as if making himself look small. He's the boss of twelve people, having started an IT company of his own and is slowly getting the attention it deserves with how much innovation they have pioneered on, all thanks to Xu Minghao's big brain and the people he works closely with, with equally big brains (just not the bank account Minghao has). Minghao would survive even withoutbreaking a sweat coming from an elite family back in his home country but here he is in South Korea, working 8 to 12 hours a day (if not more) just because he's bored (no, not really, but you get the gist)._

_Mingyu has been working for the guy for a year now and he still remains a mystery. All he really knows is how much of a genius his boss is: always coming up with innovative ideas he's very much willing to spend money on for experimental work just to see if his theories would materialize. Luckily (or maybe it's just his boss' pure genius), at least 1 out of 3 projects turns out successful, bringing them more clients and money in return._

_His boss is also very diligent with work. Always among the first to arrive in the office despite not being required to. He could work from home, take a year vacation, come to work at any time, but no. One time he came in after 10am and started apologizing to everyone for coming in late. Like, what boss does all those?_

_Given his boss' odd personality, anybody can easily take advantage of him- show up to work late, not work as hard, talk shit behind his back, they won't be getting in trouble anyway, well, at least none of them would think so because their boss is just too.. unauthoritative. Maybe it's just pure luck that Minghao has the most hard-working, most sincere people working for him. So really, he has nothing to worry about._

_It's different for his employees though. His lack of confidence leaves everybody on their toes most of the time. Not that they mind though! If anything, they love working for Minghao because really, once you get to work with him and everybody else in the office, there's really no better place to be. It's just that, as mentioned earlier, Minghao lacks confidence, is unauthoritative and most of the time, his employees feel the need to look out for him, for his best interest. Especially the older ones._

_Seungcheol, Jeonghan and Joshua mostly handles the operation. Together, they oversee high-level HR duties- attracting talent and setting training standards, work on improving organizational processes, making sure everybody's happy with what their doing to improve work quality, productivity and efficiency._

_Junhui, Hoshi and Jihoon work together in Marketing and Sales.Their job is basically to get their products out in there in the market. They create a yearly calendar of campaigns and events that will attract more clients for the company. They analyse the market and studies the competitors._

_Wonwoo takes care of the Legal aspects of the business._

_Seokmin mostly takes care of the Accounting._

_When the younger ones came, they were assigned to the different departments. Seungkwan was put to Marketing since he wouldn't stop talking and they could definitely use his kind of talent. Vernon was assigned to help out Wonwoo in the Legal department and Chan became Seokmin's assistant in Accounting._

_Mingyu is the one who works closely with Minghao. When Jeonghan interviewed him for the position, the older guy was sold. Mingyu was very straightforward with his answers, no beating around the bush. He gave the most honest and realistic answers but what really did it for Jeonghan was when he asked his trick question:_

_"If people talk smack about your boss, what would you do?"_

_"People will have their own opinions about someone. We cannot please everybody. But if what they're saying are completely ridiculous and baseless, I'll make them shut up one way or another."_

_Honestly, Mingyu thought he'd ruined his chances with that answer so he was really surprised when Jeonghan told him he's hired. And it didn't take him long enough to know why._

Mingyu knocks on Minghao's door an hour after his boss arrived.

"Hao?" he calls out, peeking from behind the door.

The younger raises his head slightly to acknowledge him and gestured for him to come in.

"Are you busy? I can come back later if you are?”

Minghao stops what he's doing and meets his eyes, only long enough to let him know that he has his attention. That's the thing about his boss, he's not good with eye contacts.

"No, I have time. What's up?"

"Okay. I'll be straight with you. We got a subpoena delivered to us while you were out."

Minghao's eyebrows furrow in confusion.

"S-subpoena for what?"

Mingyu takes a breath, leaning on the door.

"Apparently, someone's claiming they came up with the the Boom program."

The Boom program is the security program Minghao worked on for over a year, even before Mingyu joined their team. He did everything he could to make sure the firewall is impenetrable by trying to hack into his own system with Mingyu's help. When it was finally done and was introduced to the market six months ago, it became a hit to small and medium scale business owners especially since Minghao found a way to make it affordable enough for small time businesses.

"But.. we.. we have that patented.. I.. I don't understand.."

It was very hard for Mingyu to look at his boss being distressed over something like this. Yes, it's a serious matter, but he knows whoever is making the claims does not have anything to support their claims. He only hopes this little hiccup doesn't push his boss further into his shell.

"I know. We did. And we already talked about it. Wonwoo hyung is already aware of the situation and is gonna get the papers ready for the hearing." He does his best to reassure the younger. "Don't worry about it. We have it taken cared of. We just thought you should know."

Minghao looks up to him again for a couple of seconds before looking back down on his desk, nodding his head a little. "When.. when is the hearing?"

"It's not until the end of the month. Which basically gives us three weeks. I'd call them to have it rescheduled sooner but the hyungs didn't think that's a good idea." Mingyu grins hoping it would somehow calm Minghao down. When the Chinese smiles a little, he knew he succeeded.

Two weeks later, Mingyu finds MInghao sleeping on the small couch in his office. It's only 730 am when he checks the time. He placed the folders he was carrying neatly on Minghao's table before taking a closer look at the sleeping male. He notices a small patch of ugly green on Minghao's wrist and he feels his blood start to boil. He considered waking his boss up and asking him about it but he figured the question could wait. He sees Jeonghan walking into the pantry when he left the small office and followed him.

"Good morning Gyu!" Jeonghan greeted when he sees him walking in.

"Good morning hyung.." he greeted back.

Jeonghan squints his eyes at him. "What's up?"

Mingyu meets his eyes but stayed quiet.

"What is it?" the elder insisted.

Mingyu lets out a sigh. "Hyung, is Minghao.. does he.." he couldn't find his words. He doesn't know how to word his thoughts as his mind is running 100km/hr.

"What about Minghao?" worry clear in his face.

"Good morning hyungs!" a cheery Seungkwan greeted them as he comes in. The older two decided it's best to talk about it later.

Later came a lot later than expected. Everybody got busy with their tasks. Mingyu personally had to prepare for two meetings both scheduled in the afternoon and before he knows it, it's time to go home.

When he found Minghao sleeping on the same couch the next morning, he knew he needed to have that talk with Jeonghan.

"What is it? What about Minghao?" Jeonghan asks when Mingyu pulls him to the side during lunch break.

"Is he.. I know it is not my place to ask.. I'm just worried.. I saw a bruise on Minghao's wrist yesterday morning when I came in his office to leave the report. He was sleeping on the couch. This morning when I came in, he's sleeping on the couch again. I refuse to believe he doesn't have a home to go to."

Jeonghan closes his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. Mingyu didn't mean to, but he knows he's just caused the elder some amount of stress with what he said.

"Okay." Jeonghan says after a while. "Whatever happens, just.. don't confront Hao about it." the older gnaws on his lower lip, thinking how much he could share to the younger without crossing the line."He lives with his boyfriend.. no scratch that.. his boyfriend lives with him.. in his house."

"Does he hurt him?" Mingyu couldn't help but ask.

"It's.. Hao has a complicated relationship."

Jeonghan gives him a rundown of MInghao's miserable relationship and how much it has changed him. He learned that Minghao already is a very shy guy, mostly keeping to himself when they met in college during the younger's freshman year. When he met Junho on his third year, the guy pursued him, tried everything with him until Minghao said yes to a date invitation. They started out okay. Minghao was in his fourth year in college when Junho moved in with him. That was the same time when their small group of friends found out that Minghao came from a wealthy family in China and it only came to light because Minghao talked to their little friend group asking them if they would like to work with him when he sets up his own company just after graduation. Some time after Minghao's graduation there was a shift in his relationship. Junho started to be possessive, always asking Minghao who he's with when he already knows Minghao barely has time for anything else other than work, having just set up a business of his own. Then Minghao started coming to the office late which was not like him. Then he started wearing long sleeved shirts even when it's hot outside. Minghao started holing himself up in his office, only coming out when it's time to go home. He shuts everybody out and when it got too much, Seungcheol confronted him which did not end up well as it only made things worse. Jeonghan convinced Minghao to somehow talk to him, or at least let him say what he wanted to say to the younger. When the younger spares him some time, he only asked the younger to not let anybody touch him. They will stop meddling with his business if he promises to not let Junho hurt him anymore. When Minghao started spending the night in the office, they figured it was his way of getting himself out of the situation, keeping his end of the promise.

The conversation with Jeonghan only left Mingyu with more questions unanswered.

_Why is he still in the relationship?_

_It's his house, why can't he just kick him out?_

_How could anyone hurt someone as delicate and as kind as Minghao?_

_Why isn't anybody doing anything about it?_

The last question leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. He knows Seungcheol and Jeonghan and the rest wouldn't just want to stand by and watch. But the thought of Minghao completely shutting them out is more scary than anything else.

Still, there has to be something they could do, right?

Two more days have passed and nothing changed with his employer's sleeping situation. Although, Minghao would sometimes leave the office at 10-ish and come back some time in the afternoon, leaving Mingyu to deal with client calls on his own. Not a big deal since he knows everything by now. Projects Minghao is working on, clients and partner suppliers. After all, he has somehow became Minghao's spokesperson since he came to work fo him. Unlike his boss, Mingyu is very personable, easy to talk to and a charmer. He thinks this is what really landed him his job anyway.

Mingyu stayed back after everybody left for the day. It's a Friday night and he somehow has a feeling Minghao will be going back to his own place tonight.

When Minghao asked him why he's still here, he told him he's just making sure everything's set for the hearing next week. Minghao smiles a little, thanking him for his hard work before he went back inside his office.

While Mingyu's packing up his stuff, he hears Minghao's phone ring. He strained his ears trying to listen to what his boss is saying to no avail. After a little while, Minghao exits his office and tells Mingyu he's going home and that he should do the same.

Mingyu finds himself parking his car a few meters away from Minghao's in a posh residential complex. It's not the usual apartment type buildings where he lives in. This one is one of those villa type of residences. A single row of villas that reminds him of his uncle's house in San Francisco.

He waits and started to feel uneasy when after a few minutes, the younger still hasn't left his car. He was about to open his door and check on his boss when he sees him finally step out.He watches him walk up to the last door and just stands there, clutching his stuff close to his chest. Mingyu jumps in his seat when the door opens and somebody yanks Minghao's frail body inside the house.

Mingyu's head screams at him to do something.

So he did.

He steps out of his car and sprints to the door but stops when he hears screaming.

_"What? Why are you just coming home now? Huh?"_

_"I'm sorry.. I.. we.. we got busy at work.. I.. I have been subpoenaed and we're just getting every.."_

_"Stop lying to me Minghao! Were you sleeping around? Are you letting other men fuck you?!"_

_"No! No! I.. I'm not.. I don't do.."_

_"Right! Of course you won't. Nobody else would want you! You're stuck with me. Because nobody else would want you! Not even your own parents want you!"_

It was a blur. Mingyu didn't know what he was doing until he felt his knuckles hit skin over a bone. He hit Junho a couple more times before he feels someone pulling him away.

"Mingyu! Stop it please!"

He snaps out of it when he hears sobbing behind him. He turns around and sees Minghao balling his eyes out, looking very scared. Mingyu turns his head to make sure Junho is still on the floor before he pulls Minghao into a room and locks the door behind them. He sits him on the bed and kneels in front of him.

"Hey.. everything's gonna be okay." he assures the younger, gentle hand rubbing his back, watching as Minghao's whole body tremble, crying hard.

"Come out here you fucker!" They both jump a little when Junho pounds at the door screaming.

"Stay here okay? I'll take care of it." Mingyu tells him before he got up and walks to the door.

A weak punch landed on his face as soon as he opened the door. Mingyu would scoff but he's pissed so he lands another punch on Junho's face and throws him to the floor.

"Leave!" he shouted, pointing to the door.

"I live here!"

"Not anymore! Leave or I will call the cops! This is domestic abuse and you'd be dumb to not know it! " Mingyu spat out.

Mingyu stayed close to Minghao as Junho throws his clothes in his luggage in a hurry, sending them glares from time to time.

"If you think this is over you're wrong!" Junho threatens as he walks past them.

Mingyu grabs the collar of his shirt and glares at him. "You come close to Minghao I will have you arrested after I beat you up."

"Is that a threat?"

"It is not a threat if I plan to act on it." Mingyu snarls at him. "Now get lost!" He then shoves him out the door and slams the door on his face.

Mingyu kept his arms on the door, leaning his weight on it. He calms himself down a bit before turning to look at Minghao only to find him sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, his arms wrapped around his legs, rocking himself back and forth.

He slowly walks over to the younger and sat next to him.

"Are you okay?" he asks.

Minghao keeps his head down as he continues rocking himself.

Mingyu reaches over and was surprised when Minghao jumps a little and shoves his hand away.

"Why? Why would you do that?" Minghao asks, glaring at him.

Mingyu was speechless. He wasn't expecting the younger to get down on his knees and thank him but he was definitely not expecting to be treated with hostility after what he did.

"This is his house too!"

Mingyu was stunned. For the past year and a half that he has known Minghao, he has never heard him raise his voice ever. But here he is now screaming at him. Mingyu should be pissed, but he isn't. If anything, he just wanted to comfort the younger.

"Minghao are you hearing yourself?" he asks as gentle as possible. The only answer he got were more sobs and maybe he felt his heart crack a little.

Mingyu stayed the night. Minghao asked him if he could, offering him the guest room. It's not like Mingyu was planning on leaving him alone in that condition anyway but he chose to sleep on the couch. Just in case Minghao's ex comes back.

It was only a little past 7 when he woke up. He slowly got up, looked around, just making sure everything's in place. He walks over to Minghao's door and knocks a couple of times, when he hears no answer, he gently pushes the door open. He saw a lump under the sheets and walked towards the bed as carefully as possible. When he sees Minghao sleeping like a baby, he walks himself out and looked around the kitchen for something to cook.

When the younger walks out of his room, Mingyu was already setting up the table.

"Good morning. How was your sleep?" he asks.

Minghao walks over the island slowly and sat on a stool, pulling his sleeves over his knuckles.

 _Cute_. Mingyu thinks to himself.

"Morning. It was okay.. I guess.." the young CEO answers while playing with the sleeve of his pajamas.

Mingyu smiles a little.

"That's good enough. I prepared breakfast, I hope you don't mind." he says, placing a cup of freshly brewed coffee in front of his boss.

Minghao shakes his head. "Not at all. Thank you."

Mingyu sets plates of food he couldn't help but chuckle when he sees Minghao's eyes grow wide.

"Wow.. I.. I don't remember the last time I had a full breakfast.."

"Well, you better eat up then." Mingyu answers, serving him some pancakes, eggs and cut up sausages.

They ate in silence. Mingyu looks at the guy sitting across from him through his eyelashes from time to time, thinking if he should start a subject

"Uhm.."

Mingyu looks up to meet Minghao's eyes only for Minghao to look away. Again.

"I'm.. I'm sorry I raised my voice at you last night.."

Mingyu's shoulders sag at the apology. He wasn't expecting any of that.

"What are you sorry for? That was completely valid. You were upset. I understand don't worry about it." he reassures.

"Thank you." Minghao says after setting his utensils down. "But.. but I have to ask,.. why did you follow me home?"

Mingyu knows there's no other way around it but to tell the truth, he's just worried about how the younger would react.

He tells him anyway.

"A-are you sure you know what you're doing? Should we.. should we call someone to set that up?" Minghao asks, worry clear on his tone.

After Mingyu told him the condensed version of how he ended up in Minghao's apartment last night, he called Jeonghan up to let him know what happened, with the younger's consent, of course.

As expected, Jeonghan, the self-proclaimed mother of the group insisted on c _oming over to nurse his favorite child back to health._

He's only been in the house for ten minutes before he's pushing both Mingyu and Minghao in his car to buy an electronic security lock for the door.

 _"All these money and you can't even buy a security lock."_ he mocked.

"Leave it to Mingyu. He know's what he's doing. Come here help me with lunch." Jeonghan calls from the kitchen.

Mingyu gave him a reassuring smile. "I know what I'm doing. This won't take long." He answers, pulling the drill out of Minghao's toolbox.

When Minghao came to get him when lunch is ready forty minutes later, he's done installing the lock and a bit extra.

"A CCTV? Where did that come from?" the younger asks when he saw the camera installed at the corner of his doorframe.

Mingyu looks up to inspect his work before dusting off his hands.

"I got it earlier while you and Jeonghan hyung were in the grocery. I'll hook it up after we had something to eat. I'm starving!" Mingyu says, placing his big hand on the small of Minghao's back as he leads him to the kitchen where Jeonghan and the food are waiting.

\--

“Good morning boss!” Mingyu chuckled when Minghao jumped a little at the sudden greeting. He watches as the young CEO checked his wrist for the time and scrunched his forehead.

“Mingyu it’s 7:15 what are you doing here so early?”

“I could ask you the same but you’re the boss so I wouldn’t. Also, I feel bad for _always_ arriving _after_ you do so things are going to change starting today.”

The younger raises one of his eyebrows slightly and Mingyu found it amusing. Actually, if he’s being honest with himself, he kept replaying everything that transpired over two weekends ago in his mind even long after he’s gone back to his own apartment. He found it amusing realizing just how much he felt protective of his boss. He had a little battle in his mind when one side of it is saying everybody else in the office has the same protective instinct when it comes to their boss but the other side of his brain is echoing what Jeonghan told him over the phone last night.

_“You may not notice it but I’ve seen how you look at him sometimes. That’s how Seungcheol and Joshualook at me and I know that’s the look on my face when I look at them too.”_

“You’re work doesn’t start until 8:30.” Mingyu was brought back to the present at the sound of Minghao’s voice.

“Then we can have breakfast first. The cafe you like that went under renovation opens again today. French toast?”

The sight of instant glow on MInghao’s face at the mention of the re-opening of the cafe is too much that Mingyu felt his ears burn he had to look away for a second.

“Your treat?” Minghao teased, a wide grin on his face. Something new.

And Mingyu knew he’d do anything for the other to keep smiling like that. He doesn’t know where he got the confidence from but he knew everything Jeonghan said to him last night must have been true.

“Only if it’s counted as a date.” 

**Author's Note:**

> @haoships on twt


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